DO ASSISTANCE PR'S COUNT?

Anyway, I started off with my incline work. It was a 3's week for 5/3/1. The weight is very reasonable and I do not do any plus reps/amrap. This is part of meet prep. This incline work is really just kind of maintenance for now. The next exercise for me was football bar extensions. This exercise is kind of a combination of rolling extensions and a JM press. It's nicer to my elbows than a JM by using the football bar and it's a little more aggressive feeling than rolling dumbbell triceps extensions. Plus I use the bar for rows after, so it's out. Sounds lazy, but these little things are economical for time and setup.

I did not look back at my last month's numbers. When I got them started I was really surprised how comfortable they felt. I banged out 20 before it started to grind a little. I think I had a few more in me, but I think I racked it out of confusion. I went over to my training journal to see what I did last month. I thought maybe I was using 185 last time around. Nope, it was 135 and the first set was for 13. The next two sets were 13 and 12. This time around I went 20, 20, and 16.

Now I am not a lazy trainer. Even if I had taken a day for granted I would have noted it in my journal. So that's 18 more reps than last month. That's kick a$$ in my book. I also noticed last month I upped my incline weights by 5 lbs and on my fsl (first set last set) reps I did all 15 in one set versus last month when I did three sets of five. Again, kicking a$$.

So what has changed? First my weight is down, but that certainly would not explain getting stronger. What I'm figuring is my back health. The thoracic work I am doing is allowing my body to be in better position. I don't think of my back having much to do with triceps extensions. When I think about it, it's a cog in the machine. If one cog in the machine is off, it's going to throw everything off. Plus I have gotten back to regular massage. My body is getting better.

There is one caveat however, my back feels worse than it has in a long time when I wake. I have a ton more t-spine flexibility, but something else is off now. It goes away after a few hours, but it is definitely causing me pause. I don't know if I perhaps bruised it rolling on the peanut the other day. I'm thinking maybe I rolled too low on it. You can bet I will be looking into this further.